


Just What the Future Has In Store

by MercyBuckets



Series: TFA drabbles [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Food, Friendship, Gen, Handwaving, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Past Neglect, Past Torture, Paying Attention, Unhappy Childhoods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 19:30:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5639308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/pseuds/MercyBuckets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey eats like a wild thing, Finn eats like a droid. Poe just wants his friends to know that he's got their backs now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just What the Future Has In Store

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the Mountain Goats "Deuteronomy 2:10"
> 
> Not betaed and not really what I set out to write but, I like the way it ended up so here we are. Again it could be read as pre OT3 but there isn't any shippy content within. Karé and Iolo are from 'Before the Awakening' by Greg Rucka.

> _Fed twice a day, I don't go hungry anymore_  
>  _Feel in my bones just what the future has in store_
> 
> _\- The Mountain Goats "Deuteronomy 2:10"_

Rey eats her food ravenously, like someone could snatch it away from her at any moment. The first time that Poe notices this, he can't stop the pang of horror that shoots through him at the thought of _their_ Rey going hungry. There isn't an overabundance of anything in the resistance, especially now that the Republic isn't around to fund them, but he has always had enough food to eat. 

Poe is determined to show her that she will always have enough to eat now so he's taken to leaving snacks taken out of his own rations for her to find. Which is how he found himself in her room which wouldn't be a problem at all except that the door seems to be malfunctioning and now he can't seem to get out. Which is why he called Finn. 

"What were you doing in her room in the first place?" Finn wants to know from the other side of the door. 

"If you must know, I was leaving her a snack for when she gets back," says Poe. He can hear Finn's banging around stop abruptly at his words. 

Finn eats his food like Poe imagines a droid would. It's one of the few places where his conditioning is readily apparent. Each bite is portioned and swallowed and the meal is gone in exactly fifteen minutes. Finn isn't used to hunger like Rey but Poe can still remember with perfect clarity the time that his friend damaged one of the training dummies and expected cut rations as retribution. Poe has always made sure to accompany Finnto meals after that. He wants his friend to know that Poe would never stand for a punishment like that. 

"She thought it might be you," says Finn at last. The banging doesn't resume. 

Poe wonders if Finn is thinking of Rey going hungry and he asks as much. 

"The First Order fed us at least," says Finn slowly. 

"So long as you didn't step a toe out of line," says Poe under his breath. 

"All I can think of is when we did endurance training on half rations and I felt like I had a bantha on my back and I could barely lift my blaster. But that first day, she kicked two guys teeth up between their ears like it was easy."

"She's tough," says Poe. "I just want her to know that she won't go hungry here."

"I can't imagine anyone going hungry here," says Finn as he finally resumes fiddling with the door. "They don't even cut rations as discipline."

"Never," says Poe. Then he tells Finn the story of how he was once grounded to base for two days because he forgot to eat and nearly passed out in the cockpit.

Finn laughs but then his voice turns thoughtful. 

"I threw a fight once so my squad mate would win instead of me and when Captain Phasma found out, I didn't eat for three days."

Poe quells his murderous feelings towards Finn's former commander by reminding himself that these people kill civilians and as such, he should really not expect them to treat their own people any better. 

"A punishment like that is about control," he says. 

There's a pause before Finn responds. 

"Yeah, control was big, when I was a teenager we would have to hold our arms up over our heads for hours for no reason except that they told us to and if we dropped them, they'd shock us."

It's the matter of fact way that he says it that gets to Poe. Like maybe Finn still thinks that the Resistance might do something like that if it came down to it.

"When I was 18 I did my anti-interrogation training," says Poe. "It was the most pain I had ever been in before … before the Order. Not even when I crash landed and broke my collar bone had I ever hurt that much. The strangest thing was the way that even though I knew I was safe the whole time, I couldn't quite make myself believe it."

"I think we might just have to wait for Rey to get this open," says Finn. The deceptively casual, "What did they do to you?"

Poe isn't fooled.

"They knocked me around a bit and then shocked me silly. It wasn't mandatory for us pilots, I signed myself up, Karé and Iolo were furious when they found out, turned out to be a good idea though. 

They lapse into not all together comfortable silence. Poe uses this time to scramble over to the door and lean up against it. He imagines that he can feel Finn's comforting presence on the other side, like Rey describes when she uses the Force. 

"I didn't expect to see you quite so soon," says a girl's voice with a tired laugh. 

"Well Poe wanted to surprise you and then there was a problem with the door," says Finn. 

"Where did he get off to then?" asks Rey.

Poe sighs and decides that it's time to make himself known. 

"Hi Rey," he says loudly enough that she'll definitely be able to tell where his voice is coming from. 

"Suddenly I understand the door problem," she says. 

She doesn't sound mad but he wants to make sure she knows why he's here in her space. 

"I didn't mean to trespass quite as much as I ended up doing," he says by way of starting. 

She stops him. 

"When I was sixteen I got hungry enough to steal, I got caught and I still have the scars."

Whatever Poe had expected, it wasn't that. His breath goes out of him in a rush. 

"Rey," says Finn. 

"At least I had a choice in what I did," she tells him.

"At least I wasn't starving" retorts Finn. 

Poe is still trying to formulate a coherent thought when the door slides open with a tremendous shriek. Rey is standing in the door way with a bruise on her face and hair damp from sweat. Behind her Finn is red-faced, looking at her like he wants nothing more than to hug her. 

"I can't erase what has happened to you and since it produced you two, I don't think I'd want to," starts Poe. "But I can do something now."

Finn and Rey look at each other with matching looks of exasperation. 

"Come here," says Finn extending a hand.

"I've known it was you for a while," says Rey pulling Poe into a tight hug between her and Finn. 

"And you think I don't notice the way you look out for me?" adds Finn. 

"You're a good friend Poe Dameron," says Rey mock solemn. 

Poe smiles into her shoulder because he knows how much she means it. 

They stay that way for a few seconds until Poe's stomach grumbles.

Rey giggles and ruffles his hair. 

Finn smiles.

"Let's go eat."


End file.
